Norweigian Spirit Cruise Review 2/24-3/4

[judyf]

Not a lot of fun happens on the ship after 10pm. the one night we were out late enjoying the decades dance with an excellent band, they stopped 45 minutes early while the bar was packed and everybody was having fun.

 

I so agree. One of the things you will see I posted in all my NCL reviews.

 

On my last cruise on the Spirit I made friends with a couple and we made our own after hour fun at the nightclub. That went on till 3-5 am, what fun we had.

[2READY2go]

Glad to read that most people enjoyed their cruise. Sorry to read about those who became ill and also, those whose cruise experience didn't meet their expectations.

 

My full review is posted on the "Reviews" page.

 

Since returning home, I've received several spam e-mails about weight loss and diets! Is the timing coincidental? Have others also noticed an increse in incoming e-mails about this subject? Wondering if NCL sells pasenger e-mail addresses to businesses in the weight loss industry!!!!

[croyal50]

hey Vt, looks like you had a great time. Thanks for sharing the great pics! It looks like you had a balcony room, what deck were you on? Can you tell me if you had a refrigerator in your room? We are leaving the 18th on the Spirit also and have a balcony room on the 10th deck.

[kyleminski]

Hi VT3-

I have a question I think you can answer, I am on the Spirit 4/21 and my room is a few doors down from where you stayed. Will I be able to see the statue of liberty from my balcony? Thank you for the great pictures I am hoping to get some of my own.

[Cruiser42]

I was onboard as well. Thought I would add my own mini review here in lieu of a new thread.

 

Accomodations

We had room 9600, oceanview balcony room located portside midship on deck nine which we found to be a fantastic location within walking distance of pretty much everything. We find the elevators to be pretty slow at times and prefer to walk :) . Being on the port side was great on this cruise, we were able to see some amazing sunsets on the final few days. Our room service was decent, although the bathroom was dirty when we first got to our room and called the steward. They gave us a little bit of an attitude and didnt clean it for us, instead they just removed the left over hair tie that was left in the shower, leaving all the nice hairs though. We just said oh well and threw a towel down in the shower. Actually later on in the cruise they gave it a good bleaching and tried to make sure that everything was better in that regard so we give them credit for doing that. I highly recommend getting a balcony room on a caribbean cruise, in my opinion it is worth it. Having done it previously with an oceanview room, the past few cruises in balconies have been fantastic being able to enjoy some sun in privacy. We only got two towel animals the whole cruise, one was a bunny i believe and the other was a snake (yuck).

 

Food

We were on the spirit in June 2007. I must say that we are quite disappointed with the changes that have been made since then. Le Bistro, which we have enjoyed on our past 5 NCL cruises, didnt interest us anymore since Filet and the chocolate fondue is no longer on the menu. Futher, the $20 cover didnt seem to fit the new menu choices. We did Shogun which didnt seem like it changed too much since last trip and were quite happy with the food there. I wish we didnt wait until the last night because for $10 we would have gone back. Teppanyaki was a big disappointment. We have done this before on Spirit, Dawn, and Jewel and this was by far the worst experience, we will not do it again. The chef screwed up just about everyones order, didnt give people the right food and had to recook, etc. He was giving out part of my steak and shrimp order to others and vice versa for their choices which I thought was unusual and we never had this happen before. Along with the changes to the soup and salad we decided that we wont be going back which is unfortunate because we always had a good time there in the past. I believe the cover was $20 but it wasnt even worth that. On the positive, we loved La Trattoria which was the same as we remembered it but with no chicken parmesan. Highly recommended as a no cover alternate. I was impressed with Windows and Garden room and found ourselves eating there most nights. IMO, it seems like the food quality and selection has gotten better in the main restaurants and worse in some of the specialty restaurants. We had no problem with Raffles for breakfast or lunch but never made it there for dinner.

Entertainment

As previously mentioned the NCL productions are weak, very unimpressive. The Second City was good, the magician was boring same tired tricks and Cameo Pascale had some interesting acrobats mixed in with a bad rendition of a Dirty Dancing scene. We spent lots of time in the casino and unfortunately must say that we were unimpressed with the level of ability at the craps table. This was the same thing we experienced last time on the spirit (but not at all on the dawn or jewel), so if you're a craps player all I can say is watch you bets carefully at all times.

Oddly, the cruise started out with Julie as cruise director and changed to Ray-Ray about half way through. Not sure what happened, anyone know?

 

Excursions

I wont describe the ports in detail since theres alot of information available already, but feel free to ask any specific questions. Instead I will just run through what we did in each port:

St.Thomas- Taxi to charlotte amalie $4 pp to do some shopping. Taxi to magens bay for i believe $9. Plenty of taxis and you can come and go as you please no need to book beach excursions through NCL.

Tortola- Did the tortola highlights, good overview of the island and stops at cane garden bay. We went to the the Baths at Virgin Gorda last time so we skipped it this time. Recommend this tour only if you have been to VG before, otherwise dont waste your time at Cane Garden Bay on tortola. Wanted to go to Jost Van Dyke, but they cancelled the excusion :( .

Samana- Catamaran Sail & Snorkel. HIGHLY recommended, had a great time and the 3.5 hours listed turned into 5.5 hours since the tour guide wanted to show us a lot. Goes to a snorkel site, Cayo Levantado (which is gorgeous) and another secluded beach for lunch. Excellent value for the money. Didnt venture into samana either since its a taxi ride to town and back and we were tired after the long excursion, but from what I hear we didnt miss much.

 

We had a fantastic time and always do on our vacations but NCL left me feeling a little unsatisfied based on all my past experiences with them. One nice perk, we're silver latitudes and they sent some little suprises to the room , chocolate covered strawberries one day. For the first time I felt like we may try another cruise line next time....

Hi! I am booked on the Jewel in a few weeks, but am looking ahead to next year. I'm very disappointed in the itinerary of the Jewel in 08 (caribbean), but the Spirit has a great itinerary! I am trying to find out if I will be as happy on the Spirit as I plan to be on the Jewel. The Spirit looks like a smaller ship, which won't make one of my party happy (my aunt likes the bigger ships) - and I am in the casino every night, so thanks for the warning about the craps table -- BTW, have you ever booked your cruise thru casino marketing ? I do every year -- if you gamble, they'll rate you and give you a "casino" rate. There was a lot of negative in your report, and Im very sorry about that -- a cruise should always be 99% great! Thanks -- Lisa

[Mary_Jo]

Ahoy! My DH, 11 yr. old daughter and I were on this same cruise! It was our first cruise and we treated my parents as well ...

 

The virus toward the end was not due to food - I managed to get the norovirus the day after our return - on Monday - and I am just now recovering. I probably caught it on the ship - I didn't the sushi or the burgers (as I have read and heard already) so that wasn;t it - front page in our paper this morning was about the nasty virus clogging up emergency rooms and guess what - I caught it. It happens - luckily it didn't affect my cruise and am self-employed so didn't miss time from work. The virus is nasty and the worst I had in years! Not the cruise ships fault - just the nature of the beast - viruses spread in daycares, schools, institutions, and, yes, even cruise ships where people are closely confined. It was worth every second and got to spend quality time with my parents, husband and daughter in the caribbean! Until next cruise....

 

I agree, this round of the virus was nasty (I get them all!) and very contagious too. I was very, very careful when my DD got it and my DS and I still got it after all my hard work :) .

[VT3]

Croyal50 - No fridge in cabin. I brought a collapsible cloth cooler and a kitchen garbage bag to wrap around it. Worked great and they will always keep it full of fresh ice for you.

 

Kyleminski - You can see her on the way back. On the way out your numb from all the excitement so standing up on the 12th/13th deck is very fun in the freezing cold....on the way back on the other hand, nice to just step out on your balcony and admire her.

 

Searching for my next cruise already!! :D

[BethP781]

Hi somewhere in the sun,

 

Did you already post the Freestyle Dailies from your cruise? We're leaving tomorrow morning (5 AM - Yikes!), and wanted to see what there was to do on the ship while in port at Samana. Anyone else remember what there is to do that day?

 

Thanks so much!

[travelmoxie]

I have not even started my cruise yet, but I am already thinking about disembarkation. I know we port at 8am and disembarkation starts at 10 am. We have a 12:40 flight to catch at JFK (it was bumped forward by the airline recently). NCL says not to make flights before noon on disembarkation day. We are Canadians flying JFK to Buffalo (in case that affects our situation).

 

For people recently off the 8 day Spirit voyage, what time were you able to disembark (earliest)?

Did any of you have an early flight to catch?

How tight was time?

 

Please help put our minds at rest.

 

We are Canadians who flew out of Buffalo to NY and travelled on the Spirit last Nov. A 12:40 flight time is going to be very tight. As non-US citizens you cannot use the express disembark system as you must wait (endlessly) with all the other non-US citizens for your passport to be returned to you. (They take it when you check in.) If there is a large group - they will go first. I'm not sure if you have cruised with NCL before, but you receive tags for your luggage - different colours for different floors. This colour determines what order you will be called in to retrieve your passport. My suggestion is to make sure you change whatever colour you receive (unless of course you luck out) for the first colour. Also, its a good 45 minutes from the pier to JFK. We also had a 12:40 flight time (you must be travelling on JetBlue) and ended up paying $70 for a towncar cab instead of waiting in line for a regular (and cheaper) one. We made our flight, but just.

 

Any other questions, please ask.

 

gayle

 

Sorry about the bad news,

[halos]

I agree, this round of the virus was nasty (I get them all!) and very contagious too. I was very, very careful when my DD got it and my DS and I still got it after all my hard work :) .

 

Ditto.

I never get the flu (body aches, fever, and all that nonsense) but almost every time Noro or Noro type viruses go around, I manage to get it. I was fortunate that I had skipped a couple years and gone noro-free ;) but this past year, had it TWICE :rolleyes: !! Yuk! The last bout of it, I caught while in PA at the end of January where it was running rampant and yes, it was the worst case of it I had ever experienced.

It's all good. I should be ok for our cruise this week!! I figure I've paid my dues with Noro for a while.

[SKeighley]

I was on that cruise and was un aware that their was a virius going around. I thouhgt the food staff did a wonderful job keeping everything clean.

I have always cruised Carnival so this was my first NCL curise. Although I enjoyed the cruise I did miss the entertainment and good food that Canival has. We only ate in Windows or Gardens for dinner and it seemed that some of the food that I thought would be served was saved for the Special resturants. The bar staff was great. Even though there were alot of kids aboard they all behaved very well where we were and that was on the aft deck near the kids pool.

I may try NCL again but a larger ship this time. I will right a longer review on the review page.

[Butch2099]

I'm not sure if you have cruised with NCL before, but you receive tags for your luggage - different colours for different floors. This colour determines what order you will be called in to retrieve your passport. My suggestion is to make sure you change whatever colour you receive (unless of course you luck out) for the first colour. ,

 

Ok, here is a cruise critic tip for you...Nobody checks the tags when you leave the ship.... At least on any cruise I've ever been on. (it's my first time on NCL but I'm guessing it's the same)...They just scan your card & say goodbye..ALL the luggage is in the terminal, the tags are just a way of keeping organized the chaos...

[travelmoxie]

Ok, here is a cruise critic tip for you...Nobody checks the tags when you leave the ship.... At least on any cruise I've ever been on. (it's my first time on NCL but I'm guessing it's the same)...They just scan your card & say goodbye..ALL the luggage is in the terminal, the tags are just a way of keeping organized the chaos...

 

Actually, they did check - both in line during passport retrieval and during disembarkment. Quite frankly I think its incredibly selfish to butt in when others may need to leave earlier. The least you can do is change your tag colour. If everyone did that it would cause mass confusion.

[Seago2]

Ditto.

I never get the flu (body aches, fever, and all that nonsense) but almost every time Noro or Noro type viruses go around, I manage to get it. I was fortunate that I had skipped a couple years and gone noro-free ;) but this past year, had it TWICE :rolleyes: !! Yuk! The last bout of it, I caught while in PA at the end of January where it was running rampant and yes, it was the worst case of it I had ever experienced.

It's all good. I should be ok for our cruise this week!! I figure I've paid my dues with Noro for a while.

Halos- have a great cruise!

[Butch2099]

Actually, they did check - both in line during passport retrieval and during disembarkment. Quite frankly I think its incredibly selfish to butt in when others may need to leave earlier. The least you can do is change your tag colour. If everyone did that it would cause mass confusion.

 

That's true, I didn't say I cut the line, I just never had my tag checked before I left. They usually have to kick me off the ship. I would rather wait there than in an airport. I don't get my passport taken either, so that's probably part of that whole process too. I would think if you need to get off the ship asap you would have the tag that would get you off the fastest (if you filled out the forms).

[FR926]

One reason we cruise NCL is their Freestyle Disembarkation. We stay as long as they let us. Why after relaxing for (our next crusie will be a 15 day Repo cruise on the Spirit Nov 3, 2007) 15 days to ruin your cruise by turning into the hurry, hurry, person:mad: . You are paying for the time, so enjoy it:p . We are disembarking in New Orleans so we booked a hotel to do a post cruise stay and take our time getting to the airport the next day. The name of the game is to come back from the vacation relaxed. NOT needing a vacation.:)